The Ayatollah Comes to Iowa

 THE AYATOLLAH COMES TO IOWA

And it is about time I would say; a theocracy is long over due.  It's time religion replaces parties - - parties have always been insufficient to demand obedience to certain beliefs.  And it's about time to jettison the nonsense in the constitution relegating religion to a subordinate position in the scheme of things.  

Iran has been in the news and gives us a good understanding on the benefits of a theocracy:  when your citizens protest and run amok in the streets, you don't coddle them like we do here, you shoot them.  Religions in charge have always done such.  A few history lessons would be enough for a correct understanding of how theocratic governments work.  If you don't kill them en masse, you do things such as burning them at the stake, or disemboweling them, or breaking them on the wheel - - those activities certainly get the public's  attention.

We're getting there slowly though.  We have got legislation now in the works to get rid of such things as discussing or identifying oneself as LGBTQ.  No one has the right to be anything other than male or female and access to books saying otherwise should be  deemed unacceptable and banned.  It has always amused me how fearful some people are that their children might learn something different.  The idea that a child of religious parents gets an idea that maybe the parents are missing something is not to be tolerated.  Public libraries will be next and should be.  After all, someone's kid might accidentally wander into a public library and pick up some reading material that does not comply with a parent's religious beliefs somehow  involving  self-identity.

Legislation is also being pushed forward eliminating the mandate for school vaccination. Clearly there are many people who continue to believe that your child's vaccination should be a parental decision.  You know, it's about freedom and such.  A person should be free to risk not only their own children but all other children they come in contact with.  It's a free country and nobody should be able to tell me to do the intelligent thing and get  vaccinated.  One caveat though, we need to exempt the failure to vaccinate from the child endangerment criminal statutes.  We can't have parents being prosecuted if their kids die of the flu or become disfigured by polio. You have to realize that there is a difference between driving while intoxicated with your kids in the car and not allowing your kids to be vaccinated for protection from diseases that will kill or maim them.  The risk is about the same, but that is irrelevant.  

Freedom, after all, is simply personal choice.  If I can't choose between vaccines and no vaccines my personal freedom has been reduced and that is not acceptable; this is America afterall.  And, when it comes to books, freedom to read what I want, when I want, about what I want doesn't apply to personal choice.  I can insist that  my kid doesn't read anything I don't want him or her to and I can also insist that your kid can't either.  Books are the same as vaccines in one respect:  there are way too many of them and they are not necessary.

So let's applaud the Iowa legislature and give them our support.  Once passed, such legislation is sure to be signed by the governor and it will ignite further efforts to return to theocracy - - long over due.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

Put'tem in Prison!

 PUT'TEM IN PRISON!

I'm so excited, as a criminal defense attorney, that our Iowa legislature is once again thinking: 'incarceration'.  As they well know, incarcerating people solves all kinds of things.  The down side, and there is always a down side, is that with the current payment schedule for us criminal defense attorneys here in Iowa, few are interested in this new business model.  The local repairman gets paid far more than a court appointed attorney so the more criminals we produce the better.  We'll make up for it in quantity what we lose in quality.

I see from the Des Moines Register that the new idea, you would think it had never been thought of before, is to make a 20 year mandatory sentence for those who persist in not doing what they are told or otherwise persistently not behaving themselves.  From what one would gather listening to our legislators, the two most pressing issues for us Iowans are criminal behavior and property taxes.  Apparently, there is too much of both.

And, as I said at the top, being a criminal defense attorney, I can't argue with either notion.  What more can you ask than an increase in business opportunity and less expense while doing it. I can only applaud our legislature in their continued effort to make life better for those in my profession.  We might even have to build a new prison.  I'm sure numerous communities will vie for its location in or near their local area - - a great economic opportunity for their unemployed.

We have learned, I presume correctly without further analysis, that leading the world in incarceration, us, the U.S., is of tremendous benefit. Not only does it take so many unproductive people from the streets and ghettos of our cities, it alleviates many nuisances and improvident behavior from our smaller towns and communities throughout Iowa.  After all, who wants continued pilfering from places such as Walmart or HyVee or the wandering homeless when a solution is immediately available - - prison!

Being the sociologists they are, our legislators read up on all of our county attorney and law enforcement annual proposals on how to make us safer and immediately get to work.  Safety is the concern - - as it should be.  One needs to be able to do whatever one wants whenever one wants without hindrance from those who don't have the means to do whatever they want whenever they want.  Pretty simple really.

So, I must applaud any new effort to make more criminals and for keeping them locked up longer.  Who needs such people wandering around making life less idyllic than it should be.  Not necessary.  It's especially a win - win for those in my profession - - more business at less cost; and as for the general public, they can relax more comfortably in their beds at night knowing that there are fewer people stealing  tools from the garage while they slumber or the Amazon delivery off the porch that shows up whenever.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

We'll Wait and See

 WE'LL WAIT AND SEE

The words of our long time senator, Charles Grassley:  "I'll wait to see what the FBI investigation shows".  This is, if one were not aware, the statement that our senator made upon inquiry of his opinion, or view, or thoughts of, the shooting of the woman in Minneapolis.  The only response possible to such a statement is "Watch the video!"

We must remember that Senator Grassley is part of the congressional body that funded ICE.  Iowa's entire congressional body voted for the vast funding of ICE and its hiring of innumerable men who were then given guns and called police:   All for the purpose of grabbing people from their jobs, their schools, their cars, putting them in cells with hundreds, if not thousands, of others, and sending them away to parts unknown.

I recently read an analogy that immediately caught my attention.  It was looking back at the Holocaust which killed six million jews, unnumbered Roma, and others,  which benefited no one.  It killed, tortured and otherwise made life miserable for millions without any benefit to those remaining.  Our current efforts have the same lack of effect.  Rounding up and deporting thousands of people here in the United States, most of whom work, buy things, pay into social security, and otherwise add to the economic viability of this country benefits no one.

Of course, being deported is better than being shot in the face in front of your three children.  For our elected representatives to not act or respond in outrage is outrageous.  Here we have people who are purportedly elected to represent us, presumably to make our lives better if possible, who spend their time and energy either verbally or silently supporting this national effort to make life miserable for thousands without any thought whatsoever of the possible benefit to either the country or to the people in it.  It really is shameful.  Are we afraid to disagree; are we afraid to say stop!

We are made aware of this administration using the office of the attorney general to investigate and/or charge those who disagree with it and are capable of expressing that disagreement.  Is this what happened in the 30's - - as long as it doesn't affect us, we don't care enough to do anything about it.  But then, it does affect us and those who are left don't care about us!  Are our elected representatives afraid they will be next?

We must care what happens to us and others if we are to maintain a civilized society where we can all prosper and live without fear.  Let us hope that the current attitudes and actions of our government and of the people currently in charge fade quickly and we return to some form of normalcy which does not terrorize us.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

Parable of the Sower

                      PARABLE OF THE SOWER

Octavia Butler

Books for Bigots

Now here is a book for just about any Bigot.  The end of civilization, the search for a new Jerusalem, violence, mayhem, rape, cannablism, simple survival in a society gone berserk.  One major difficulty may be, though, that our narrator, leader, and guiding prophet is an eighteen year old - - black, and female. The realization is not immediate however, possibly giving the reader enough time to get involved in the story that it can be read through without too much disgruntlement.

Lauren Olamina, unfortunately, has a name that is obviously not Anglo-Saxon. Germanic, or Nordic in origin which I know will be off-putting to many Bigots.  Lauren has created Earthseed:  The Book of the Living.  One caption pretty well captures the sense of the book:  "In order to rise from the ashes, a Phoenix must first burn".  America, in this book, is definitely burning and clearly gone with no semblance of current, everyday life, as we know it.

It is difficult to give a good sense of the book in 500 words.  It is a book that sticks with you after you have finished it.  It makes an impression; you remember events and characters, landscape and the events.  It's not Pamela.  Civilization, as we know it, for most of the population is over.  If you can't steal or salvage you starve.  If you have anything of value, you are killed for it.  It is a survival story with most not surviving.

Another issue with which a reading Bigot will face is Lauen's view of God.  To her, God is Change - - that is all, that's it.  This is a somewhat odd view of the deity, if one can call 'change' a deity.  One's first impression is that the author,  Ms. Butler, has a rather unorthodox view of what might be considered a deity.  Although if one thinks about it, which most Bigots will not, the idea is not far from what we consider to be God anyway. 

If you are of the opinion that God is the cause of everything - - the creator whether currently actively engaged or simply the entity that set everything in motion, you are, in effect, of the opinion that all change is the result of God's actions, and is, therefore, his embodiment.  God is the creator of the world and everything in it and it keeps operating according to his plan and will presumably continue to do so.  It really is not a very long leap to say that "God is Change" then.

I will have to conclude however, that most Bigots do not have the inclination nor the ability to analyze what they read in any meaningful way.  The PARABLE OF THE SOWER, would more than likely keep the attention of the average BIGOT and could be read to the end simply to find out what happens to the characters picked up on the trek to a new life, at a place called Acorn.  It's a pretty good story and one that a reader including BIGOTS can get involved in.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo